Candle Making Supplies
Posted on September 26, 2007
Filed Under Candle Making | Leave a Comment
Choosing a Supplier
If you are looking for candle making supplies, there are plenty of reputable ones on the web. We have been working with online candle making suppliers for years and have found most to be pretty good, although we do have our favorites.
The first thing you need to do is compare prices. When you are comparing prices make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Not all waxes, scents, dyes and wicks are created equal and many times you will get what you pay for. This we learned the hard way. You can’t go by a company’s fancy name and expect them to have superior products. So buyers beware as they say.
After you have done your comparison-shopping, find out where the supplier is located. Usually, the closer a candle-making supplier is located, the better. If the supplier is close to you, then most of the time the shipping will be less expensive. But be aware of minimum shipping charges. We have found in some cases, the suppliers that are the furthest away actually charge less for shipping.
What matters most is the bottom dollar line and the quality of the product. The bottom dollar line is the amount you paid for the product, including the shipping charges. If you are making candles to sell, this is a very important factor. You have to remember that you have to add the shipping charges you were charged in the total when pricing your products.
After you have found a supplier that carries the product or products you think you might want to use, then see if they carry samples of their products. Some will send samples for free. Other you will have to pay for. The point to this is not ordering something you will be sorry for, i.e. fragrance for candles that costs over $400.00, which isn’t a large cost factor if you happen to like the scents. It’s no fun being fooled by a fancy name and testimonies, that’s why buying samples first is a good idea.
Right now our supplies come from all corners of the US. Why? Because we want quality, good prices, good customer service and a supplier that carries a good inventory. We will pay more for shipping to get a superior product.Of course buying in bulk almost always insures better pricing. But if you’re not sure of the company or their products, don’t buy in bulk!
For a list of Suppliers that we feel have met the mark visit our website, they are listed on our link page.
www.theimaginationworkshop.com
Great Page Embellishment and Sticker Tips For Scrapbooking
Posted on September 19, 2007
Filed Under Scrapbooking | Leave a Comment
Great Page Embellishment and Sticker Tips
Page embellishments and stickers for your scrapbook pages can get end up costing you quite a bit of money, if you are looking for a less expensive approach to embellishments and stickers we have a great resource for you. You can go to www.clipart.com and check out all their royalty free clipart, they have a plethora of clip art, fonts, photos and lots of great things for scrapbookers, digital and regular scrapbookers. For a membership price of $14.95 you can download 1000 images a day. Even if you don’t decide to keep the membership it is worth the price. Download the images and save them to a cd or your hard drive, whatever works best for you. Once you have downloaded the images you can turn them into stickers, page backgrounds or embellishments. There’s really no limit to what you can do, and they are adding new ones all the time. Check out their site, it will be well worth your time.
For more tips and information visit our website www.theimaginationworkshop.com
Great Halloween Spiders You Can Make Yourself
Posted on September 10, 2007
Filed Under Holiday Crafts | Leave a Comment
These spiders are easy to make and are a great addition to your Halloween Decor.
The supplies you will need are:
Styrofoam eggs
One-inch Styrofoam balls.
Black pipe cleaners
Tacky glue
Spackle or Joint Compound
Gesso or a Primer of some sort to seal the Spackle
Acrylic paints in black, red, orange and white
Toothpicks
How many Styrofoam balls and eggs you will need depends on how many spiders you want to make. You can use bigger Styrofoam balls and eggs, if you want to have larger spiders. This guide will make spiders about the size of your hand.
You can cut the balls and eggs in half to make spiders that can be attached to flat surfaces, such as your windows or refrigerator. If you glue a magnet to the bottom of your spider you could use them as refrigerator magnet. If you leave the Styrofoam ball and egg whole, you can create a spider that stands on it’s own and it is much creepier looking than the spider with the flat bottom.
To get started you will need to attach your Styrofoam ball and egg together. You do this by putting glue on one end of a toothpick and sticking it in about half way into you Styrofoam ball. Put glue on the other end of the toothpick and insert it half way into the Styrofoam egg. You may want to experiment first on placement of the head in ratio to the egg before you glue it. Where you glue the head can really add some interest to the spider.
Do not use a hot glue gun to glue the spider; hot glue will melt the Styrofoam. Let your glue setup completely, you do not want the spider body to fall apart during the next step.
Spread a thin layer of Spackle or joint compound all over the spider body. It can be smoothed out with your fingers. You can use rubber gloves for this step if you prefer. Let the Spackle dry completely, if you have applied a thin coat it won’t take long for the Spackle to dry. As a matter of fact, you need to work quickly when applying the Spackle so it doesn’t setup before you are ready.
Apply a second coat of Spackle to the spider body. After the second coat of Spackle has dried, paint the spider body with one to two coats of gesso or some other primer. You need to prime the Spackle or the Spackle will suck up your paint and you won’t have a nice finish on your spiders.
Once the primer has dried on your spider body it is time to paint your spider. Paint the spider body with black acrylic paint; making sure to completely cover the body so that the primer does not show through, you may need an additional coat of paint if it does not cover well.
Use a toothpick to make four holes evenly spaced on each side of the spider’s body for the legs. Insert the toothpick about a quarter to a half an inch into the body to allow for a good glue hold for the spider’s legs. Dip one end of your pipe cleaners into tacky glue and insert a pipe cleaner in each hole that you have just made with the toothpick. Let the glue on the legs setup before you try to move them. While you are waiting for the legs to dry you can add the finishing touches to your spider. Add some red eyes, small dots will do nicely. You can put a design on it’s back, at this point it’s up to you on how your finished spider will look. I like to paint a thin coat of watered down glue on the spider and sprinkle them with black glitter, it kind of makes the spider look a little hairy.
After the legs have completely setup, bend the legs up against the spider’s body and then bend the pipe cleaner in half. At the end of the pipe cleaner, bend about one quarter to one half and inch of the pipe cleaner out away from the body to form a foot on the spider’s leg.
And there you have it, a Halloween spider!
For more great holiday decorating and craft ideas, visit us at www.theimaginationworkshop.com.
What type of wax should I buy?
Posted on September 3, 2007
Filed Under Candle Making, Candles | Leave a Comment
That depends on who and what you are making the candle for. Some people prefer candles that are made from natural, renewable sources. Others are more concerned with aesthetics. You need to decide who you are making candles for and why.If it doesn’t matter what the candle is made from, then paraffin is the way to go. It is by far the least expensive of all the waxes. However even with paraffin you will generally pay more for higher grades. Which means the paraffin has gone through a more intensive refining process and it will have a better chance of burning cleaner than the lower grade. Paraffin wax users seem to have fewer problems finding suitable wicks for their candles. The wax doesn’t have the viscosity of palm wax for example. Viscosity is the hardness of the wax. Which can be both good and bad depending on what you are going for. Some people believe that natural wax candles burn cleaner than paraffin candles. I believe that’s still up for debate in the candle making industry. However, we have found by burning the different candles that we have made in our workshop plus burning many of the competitor’s candles, we get the cleanest burn from palm wax candles.We found in our trials that paraffin candles contributed the most soot, followed by vegetable waxes with paraffin added, soy candles and the cleanest burn from palm wax. But again, it depends on how the wax is refined. We have received some pretty nasty palm wax, a candle maker’s worst nightmare to say the least. So if it is quality you are looking for than you will most likely pay more for the wax.If you are making pillar candles and you want the pillar to burn so you can visually see its flame, then don’t use palm wax. Palm wax creates a hurricane effect with pillars, or at least it should. There should be at least 1/4 of an inch of wax that is not melted when the candle has been burned for about 4 hours. A palm wax candle can’t be cupped like a paraffin candle. The hardness of the wax will cause the wax to crack and break if you can move it at all. To try to make the rim of wax left any thinner would be irresponsible as a candle maker, because it would more likely cause tunneling instead of seeing a candle flame. If you want to use palm wax and still want to see the candle’s flame then burn votives and tea lights, that’s what we do. We put them in holders with different heights to have the same effect you may want from pillars.Soy wax candles have a creamy texture to them, unless of course they have palm wax added to them. In that case they are not all soy. A candle only has to be 25% soy wax to be called a soy wax candle. Soy candles that have patterns are not all soy wax. Soy wax is an easier wax to work with than palm wax. But it’s harder to work with than paraffin.Candle carving and water candles are best achieved with paraffin. Candles that are transparent use gel candle waxes. And the easiest candle to make is a beeswax candle, if you are using the sheets of wax. No melting required just cut and roll around the wick. So as previously mentioned, what type of wax to use depends on the who and the why of the candle.For information on where to purchase wax go to the links page on our website.www.theimaginationworkshop.com
Candle Making Supplies
Posted on September 2, 2007
Filed Under Candle Making, Workshop News | Leave a Comment
Choosing a Supplier
If you are looking for candle making supplies, there are plenty of reputable ones on the web. We have been working with online candle making suppliers for years and have found most to be pretty good, although we do have our favorites.
The first thing you need to do is compare prices. When you are comparing prices make sure you are comparing apples to apples. Not all waxes, scents, dyes and wicks are created equal and many times you will get what you pay for. This we learned the hard way. You can’t go by a company’s fancy name and expect them to have superior products. So buyers beware as they say.
After you have done your comparison-shopping, find out where the supplier is located. Usually, the closer a candle-making supplier is located, the better. If the supplier is close to you, then most of the time the shipping will be less expensive. But be aware of minimum shipping charges. We have found in some cases, the suppliers that are the furthest away actually charge less for shipping.
What matters most is the bottom dollar line and the quality of the product. The bottom dollar line is the amount you paid for the product, including the shipping charges. If you are making candles to sell, this is a very important factor. You have to remember that you have to add the shipping charges you were charged in the total when pricing your products.
After you have found a supplier that carries the product or products you think you might want to use, then see if they carry samples of their products. Some will send samples for free. Other you will have to pay for. The point to this is not ordering something you will be sorry for, i.e. fragrance for candles that costs over $400.00, which isn’t a large cost factor if you happen to like the scents. It’s no fun being fooled by a fancy name and testimonies, that’s why buying samples first is a good idea.
Right now our supplies come from all corners of the US. Why? Because we want quality, good prices, good customer service and a supplier that carries a good inventory. We will pay more for shipping to get a superior product.Of course buying in bulk almost always insures better pricing. But if you’re not sure of the company or their products, don’t buy in bulk!
For a list of Suppliers that we feel have met the mark visit our website, they are listed on our link page. www.theimaginationworkshop.com
When did it begin?
Posted on September 1, 2007
Filed Under Misc. | Leave a Comment
I think my creative journey began at conception! I can’t recall a time in my life that didn’t not have something to do with being creative in one way or another. Over the years the tasks I have undertaken and the mediums I have worked with are too numerous to try to recall. I of course have certain areas that interest me more than others, however I still am willing and curious to try new things. And as long as I live it is doubtful that those that know me will allow me to cease to be creative in one area or another. I think they find too much enjoyment out of picking my brain.
What causes a candle to soot?
Posted on September 1, 2007
Filed Under Candle Making, Candles | Leave a Comment